ignite23 Days 6-7

Early wakeup at 6am, followed by an early breakfast gave me time to take a few photos of the surrounding town, before packing my bag and bringing it out of my tent while I left it to dry. After spending a good hour and a half waiting for my tent to dry (and watching others put theirs away while still wet), I packed up my tent, threw my gear in the back of the minivan, gathered around for a ceremony and to take photos of the West Coast Wanderers and Unit 2004, we loaded up and headed off on our way at 10:30am.

Heading straight at the turnoff to Moana (instead of left like we should have) meant a few minivans started following us before realizing and turning around. Stopping in Greymouth for Patch to pick up batteries and us to buy snacks, we quickly doubled back towards the turnoff and on the way again we were.

No photostops along the way, but I did take a few from the moving minivan before we rolled on in to Arthur's Pass around 12:30pm for a lunch stop. Long queue at the cafe, so only out to take a few photos of a nearby kea, throw out some rubbish and eat some food before jumping back into the van.

One more toilet stop before Mayfield saw Olympia get distracted and us all heading off to the playground for a quick play to stretch our legs, before Patch entertained us with some donuts in the parking lot. Meeting up with the other minivans at a petrol station in Methven gave us another stop for snacks and a chance to refill, before traveling again in convoy towards the Venture site in Mayfield.

Only arriving a good hour and a half late, we took our gear to our campsite and started work on setting up tents, before I caught up with Tim, headed to the programme office and then over to dinner. Early dinner for us, being from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, before heading off to a quick preflight meeting for my Hot Air Ballooning on the 4th.

Despite trying to make it an early night, I ended up heading to bed around 11pm (chatting away with others), with Laurence promising me a 4:20am wakeup call (spoiler - it never happened!). All ready for my hot air ballooning in the morning!

Waking up to panic isn't nice, especially when it's at 4:20am, but that's exactly what happened when my ID card wasn't where I left it (needed it to get onto my trip), but luckily, I found my ID card under my sleeping bag (waking up both James and Patch in the process). Crisis averted, I headed to the toilet and over to the breakfast tent. Nothing had been opened up yet (others waiting though), though someone soon came and opened it, giving us access to the breakfast tent.

After a quick breakfast, I headed over to the muster point, and waited for all the others to show up. By 5am, we had all but one there, so someone else took their place, and headed off to find minivans (a whole new issue when only one set of keys opened a van), and off to Methven to meet up with the Hot Air Balloon company.

A 30 minute drive from Methven in a bus saw us in a paddock in the middle of nowhere, with us helping to unroll and setup the hot air balloon, before we split into two groups (one having to stay close by and jump in first, the other able to wander back and take photos). Being in the 2nd group, I took some photos of the balloon being setup, and taking off, before we jumped back on the bus and headed off following the balloon.

Finding multiple locked gates slowed us down, but eventually we found an open gate and made our way to where the hot air balloon had landed (through some random farmers paddock), and began the transition of the two groups. I jumped in one corner, along with two others and when all 12 of us were in, we took off and quickly began rising.

Reaching a maximum height of well over 6,000 feet, we were able to enjoy stunning views of the Southern Alps, Mt Cook, and the land below. With a total travel time of around 45 minutes, we ended up doing a figure 8 pattern before landing in a paddock around 300 meters away from where we took off (and just short of the pig farm, thank goodness). The farmer who lived next door came to say hello with his wife (and ended up scoring himself a free bottle of champagne).

While the first group made their way towards us, we dismantled the hot air balloon, and started packing it up, and once the bus and trailer arrived, packed it all up. A nice glass of orange juice and a muffin followed our flight, before we started heading back to Methven, where I bought a Hot Air Balloon pin for $5, and finally back to Mayfield by 11am.

After lunch, I headed over to the muster point to see if I could jump onto the trip to Ashburton, but seeing the queue for spare seats, I jumped on another trip (Holy Walkamolies) with James and Aiden (WCW member).

Following a 30 minute drive, we made it to the car park and began our walk, with us splitting into two groups after the 2nd turn off, with one group doing the loop and the other heading back to the van to see if they could swim anywhere. I headed off with Aiden, Adam and Gordon (the latter two both did Coast to Coast) to continue the walk, and after a steep climb, we arrived at the Blackburn Coalmine (which was a disaster as a coalmine).

A short 15 minute stop up the top of the hill was well worth it, as we began down the 2nd path to loop back up, with the route ending up being half visible at the best of times and very steep too. Making it the bottom was a relief before connecting back onto the path and finishing the loop, then we followed the arrow the other group left on the ground back to the carpark. We encountered the other group as they made their way back to the van, so off we headed back through Mt Somers.

Back to camp for dinner, before heading over to the main stage to hear some announcements before the music began. I spent some time listening to the music, before heading off to my tent for a bit, but returned to the stage to listen and dance to the music before it stopped at around midnight. Then teeth, toilet, water and off to bed, with nothing planned for the day ahead.